Russell Wilson

Wilson's 2016 was doomed from almost the beginning when he suffered a high-ankle sprain in Week 1 and a sprained MCL in Week 3. He played through both, but the injuries crippled his running threat, wh...

Wilson led the NFL and tied a team record with 34 touchdown passes in 2017, but it was partly a result of an inept running game as he posted career lows in completion percentage (61.3) and yards per attempt (7.2).

Wilson completed 26 of 42 passes for 258 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in Monday night's 34-31 loss to the Falcons. He also rushed seven times for 86 yards and another score, but had a fumble returned for a touchdown.

The Seahawks violated the NFL's concussion protocol in the third quarter Thursday's win over the Cardinals after allowing Wilson to reenter the game without first going to the locker room and receiving clearance from a team doctor and independent physician, a source informed Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.

Through the first half it looked like Wilson was headed for another quietly efficient season as the caretaking quarterback for a Seahawks offense that was content to keep the ball on the ground, with his own scrambling ability having to compensate for his lack of production through the air. Then Marshawn Lynch suffered an abdominal injury that held him out for the final seven weeks, and coach Pete Carroll decided to open up the gameplan and see what Wilson could do. The result was an incredible stretch in which he threw for over 1,900 yards with 24 TDs in seven games, and completed 70 percent of his passes or better in five straight contests. Wilson was dynamite on both short and long routes, one of only three passers (along with Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton) to post a QB rating above 100 on attempts both under and over 15 yards, with his second-half explosion leading to career highs in attempts, yards, completion percentage, TDs and YPC. With Lynch now retired, a hopefully healthy Jimmy Graham at tight end and a developing deep threat on the outside in Tyler Lockett, Wilson may finally have both the opportunity and the supporting cast to take full advantage of his accuracy and arm strength.

2015

Wilson re-wrote his fantasy resume last season to better match his superlative real-life one, which includes more wins than any quarterback in NFL history in his first three years and coming within one yard of back-to-back Super Bowl titles. He finished as one of the top fantasy QBs despite the Seahawks' league-low pass attempts, as he supplemented his middling passing numbers  15th in yards, 16th in touchdowns  with the fifth-most rushing yards by a quarterback all-time. He gained 10-plus yards on 28 percent of his carries, far outpacing the next closest quarterback (Colin Kaepernick, 18.3 percent). And his eight runs of 20-plus yards were more than all but six running backs as the read-option became Seattle's big-play replacement following the Percy Harvin debacle. Wilson might not run the read-option as much this season, but he still likely will have to scramble behind a suspect offensive line that lost its best blocker when center Max Unger was traded for Jimmy Graham. The playmaking tight end should make up for whatever Wilson loses in rushing, though. At 6-7, 265, Graham is the big-bodied receiver Wilson has desperately needed, especially in the red zone (see: Super Bowl) where the Seahawks ranked 20th in touchdown efficiency last year. Graham, expected to split wide often, should also help over the middle, where the 5-10 Wilson seemingly struggles to find targets (32 attempts, 29th). The Seahawks are still a run-first team (league-high 53.8 percent rushes since 2012), but Wilson, who has thrown fewer interceptions every year even with increased attempts, could get to do more through the air this season.

2014

Wilson plays in the league's most run-heavy offense and doesn't have any elite receivers, yet he continues to produce with extreme efficiency to the point that he's safely on the QB1 radar in all formats. His numbers from 2012 to 2013 were almost identical, throwing 26 touchdowns in each season while running for around 500 yards. There's a chance that Wilson's already sterling 2013 numbers will improve with a full season of Percy Harvin at receiver, as Harvin would be the best after-the-catch runner Wilson has ever thrown to, by far. Considering Wilson has played in the most run-heavy offense in the best defensive division, it'd be reasonable to posit that his numbers over the last two years have been his floor. His pass attempt volume is unlikely to decrease, and the NFC West defenses are unlikely to improve. In other words, Wilson might have nowhere to go but up. Still, he's unlikely to throw more than 450 or so passes, so Wilson will likely struggle a bit to take his fantasy value to the elite level.

2013

Heading into the 2012 season, all eyes were on rookie quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. Wilson  a player many deemed as "too short" to play quarterback  was an afterthought. Fast forward to 2013, and Wilson is one of the hottest names in the NFL. That will happen when you record a 100.0 passer rating  one of the highest for a rookie in league history  including 26 passing touchdowns and only 10 interceptions.
The best part about Wilson is he has so much room for improvement. He threw only 393 passes in 2012. Even in the Seahawks run-heavy scheme, Wilson is a safe bet to eclipse that mark this year, and perhaps by a wide margin. That's particularly true with Wilson's new weapon on the outside in Percy Harvin. Harvin's presence in Seattle suggests the Seahawks could let Wilson air it out more than in his rookie campaign, with a lot of the team's short-yardage runs turning into short passes to Harvin. With the dynamic receiver's run-after-catch ability, Wilson can get the ball into Harvin's hands and let the receiver do the work for him.
And let's not forget Wilson's rushing ability. The quarterback averaged 5.3 YPC in 2012  a mark he can easily improve upon  and totaled four rushing touchdowns.

2012

Wilson is in a three-way battle with Matt Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson for the starting quarterback job. Flynn signed for a bunch of money and Jackson is the incumbent, so Wilson has his work cut out for him. At 5-10, Wilson is undersized for a traditional quarterback. However, the Seahawks are high on him, and it won't take much to push out the lackluster Jackson. Expect him to at least be the backup.